The good, the bad, the daring and the darling

The Good:

It's been so much fun having Shawn home so much more! He is still gone Tuesday-Thursday evenings with his calling, but when he is home it is so much fun.  The boys get to wrestle, which is the first thing they ask him to do when he gets home every day, and we get to read books as a family once again.  Right now, we are reading "Bud, Not Buddy".

He's home to take care of things like kids that run out of gas on the way to school, and our dog that escaped and was found dead on the side of the road on a super foggy morning last week.  ( I know that should be another story.)

The Bad:

We have always had some wild turkeys around here and have enjoyed them, but this year our neighbor raised some tame ones and they are driving me nuts!  They spend all day on the side walk and the front porch.  There are about 30 of them (most of them in this picture are up on the porch) and the sidewalk has to be shoveled once a day and not because it has been snowing.  Yuck.  I step out the front door and for a minute I wonder if I've stepped into a chicken coop.

The daring:

My little boys haven't been taking visits from the Tidy Fairy very seriously lately.  After I found this note, I told the Tidy Fairy to take anything that wasn't in the right place, and she did!  Luckily, she told me that she would give things back the next week if she came and everything looked satisfactory.  I am so glad that she did this! The boys cleaned like they never had before - frankly I didn't think they were capable of how well they cleaned - and they did get their things back.  And now I know they can do more than I had thought...

Pace cutting his teeth on an old dagger that he found of Shawn's.  He can get into or climb up to anything. This is a very busy boy! He's into everything and so cute by one moment and the next moment he is throwing impressive tantrums that can last up to one hour in length when he doesn't get his way.  Last night he kept disappearing into the mud room and closing the door.  Usually he just leaves the door open. When we would check on him he invariably had something he wasn't supposed to have (how does he know what he isn't supposed to have?!) Things like open markers, phones, DAGGERS...I'm glad that he hasn't caught on that closing the door is a sure give- away that he is up to something sneaky!

The darling:

Isabelle holds "school" for Abram almost every day and teaches him some great things!  She makes up lesson plans before she starts and everything.  Below is the white board that she has in her bedroom.  She requested that I buy some fruit snacks that she can use as a bribe when Abram's attention span is getting short- she can make one pack last for weeks, just divvying out one at a time. She keeps a pack of those on the board, along with a small container filled with pretzels.  Also she has popsicle sticks with names on them so that everyone gets called on (she allows Nolan and her dolls to also participate). She makes it so fun that the boys always come back for more!